


Dancing in the Shadows

by Sangerin



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The West Wing
Genre: Community: 100_women, F/F, Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-02-27
Updated: 2006-02-27
Packaged: 2017-10-17 02:18:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/171883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sangerin/pseuds/Sangerin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tara will only ever know how grateful she is that it all happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dancing in the Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt 001 - Beginnings for [](http://community.livejournal.com/100_women/profile)[**100_women**](http://community.livejournal.com/100_women/)

She’ll never understand why, when she left the house on Revello Drive, she just kept going. She’d intended to stay in Sunnydale, for Dawn’s sake more than her own, but somehow when her life was packed into boxes and bags it brought all the years of pain and confusion in Sunnydale to an end, and she knew she had to leave. She’d written a long letter to Dawn, and a shorter one to Buffy, and put most of her things in storage. She withdrew from what was left of the semester, and with the bond refund on the dorm room she hadn’t used in six months she bought a plane ticket to Washington DC.

It wasn’t the obvious place to run to. Who escapes to a town full of politicians and public servants? But the one thing Tara knew when she left was that she couldn’t go home. The day before she left Willow, a postcard had arrived from DC – a friend from long ago was interning with a speech-writing team. It was as good a sign as any.

Lauren put her up happily when she arrived; filled her in on the places to go and the places not to go. Tara sat up late telling Lauren about Willow (but not about magic – she wanted to leave that all behind); she went to Georgetown and American Universities for course catalogues; she spent time looking at all the memorials and for two solid weeks she ‘did’ the Smithsonian and still felt she hadn’t seen half of it. She started paying attention to politics. Lauren introduced her to friends and persuaded Tara to go out with them. Tara found a part-time job and, to her surprise, was accepted as a transfer student to Georgetown. She found herself a tiny studio apartment and sent for her boxes. She waited for letters from Sunnydale that never came.

Through Lauren she met Elsie Snuffin, and through Elsie she met Claudia Jean Cregg.

* * *

Elsie turned thirty, and her half-brother Will threw a party. A beltway party, where ‘friends’ are also people you see on the evening news; where Zoey and Ellie Bartlet were guests, and so many members of the administration staff were there that Joshua Lyman, deputy chief of staff, was heard to wonder who would answer the phones in the case of a national emergency. Tara knew all the Laurens, and the rest of the internship staff, and even knew Will Bailey well enough to joke and laugh with him. She had a glass of wine, and sat by the bar, watching Elsie dance chaotically with Zoey.

‘Never crush on a Bartlet girl. It will only bring heartache and lashings of Catholic guilt.’

Tara turned to see who had spoken; a low, smoky woman’s voice. She looked into a face she’d seen on the television at least once a week since the administration had begun.

‘CJ Cregg,’ said the woman, holding out her hand.

‘Tara Maclay,’ she replied. She shook CJ’s hand. ‘I’m not crushing on Zoey. I’ve heard too much about Jean-Paul and Charlie to bother.’

‘Then it’s Elsie,’ said CJ, knowingly.

Tara smiled. ‘I plead the fifth.’

‘Ah. You speak the language.’ CJ leaned over toward the barman and ordered a glass of wine.

‘I’m just learning. I’ve only been here a few months.’

CJ nodded at that and sipped from her glass. ‘Elsie’s a lovely girl. But she needs to take our advice about the Bartlet women.’

Tara smiled at first, and then laughed as CJ’s eyes sparkled with fun.

‘Would you like to dance?’ CJ asked. ‘Josh isn’t doing anything: he can mind our drinks. If you don’t mind being seen dancing with a senior citizen, that is.’

Tara will never understand why she nodded and took CJ’s hand, although she knows that the final sentence had a lot to do with it. She’ll never quite be able to explain why she felt like sparks shot from their fingers when they touched. Or why she didn’t recoil when later, hidden in a shadowy corner, CJ bent down to kiss her. Or why she kissed back.

She’ll only ever know how grateful she is that it all happened.


End file.
